The Lord had assured Paul that he would witness in Rome, and that promise came a step nearer fulfillment with Paul’s transfer to Caesarea. The story has all the marks of an eyewitness account, such that only the most skeptical would question Luke’s veracity. Martin describes these verses as “a drama of suspense and mystery, with hurried exchanges of information, quick decisions, and sworn secrecy.” The name of God does not appear once, yet “the undertone of divine providence runs throughout; and God is there, if unseen and unrecognized, in the plans and counter-plans of enemies and friends” (pp. 129f.).

23:12–13 The next day, following the fiasco of the council inquiry, a group of more than forty Jews bound themselves by an oath to assassinate Paul. The identify of this group is not indi…